The objective of the Administration, Mentoring and Recruitment Core is to assist all of the COBRE team members by providing administrative service. In the first Phase of the COBRE, the Core has been responsible for budgeting, ordering, progress report submission for the entire COBRE, and organizing meetings of the External Advisory Committee and the Internal Advisory Committee as well as meetings of COBRE Promising Junior Investigators (PJIs). This Core has substantially reduced the workload of PJIs in their administrative work and enhanced collaborations between PJIs, thus contributing to the overall success of our COBRE. This Core will be responsible for the overall administration of the COBRE including: announcement of openings of COBRE PJI or Early Career Investigator (ECl) positions and pilot projects, selecting PJIs/ECIs and mentors based on the EAC's recommendations, establishing the mentoring program, overseeing the overall budget, organizing meetings of the EAC and lAC, organizing the seminar series, interacting with all the Core directors and PJIs, following the progress and milestones of PJI's projects, and submitting progress reports to NCRR. The Core will also work closely with the Harold Hamm Diabetes Center and the Provost the Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center and the Dean of the College of Medicine to recruit new investigators to Oklahoma. Finally, the Administration Core will continue to organize the Annual Diabetes Research Symposium to enhance collaboration.